Category Archives: Punishment

On Easter Monday, 24th April, the staff of the Hotel Metropole on O’Connell Street were surprised to see a party of armed uniformed men enter the premises. Brandishing their guns at the manager, the men demanded all the cooked meats … Continue reading →

Flogging (see my last post) wasn’t the only way that the nineteenth-century army left permanent marks upon soldiers bodies. It is shocking to today’s sensibilities, but miscreant soldiers were branded. Or, to be technical, forcibly tattooed. Men had been branded … Continue reading →

One December morning in 1845 the ‘loud and agonizing cries of a person apparently in the extremes of bodily torture and anguish’ echoed through the streets of Castlebar, County Mayo. In the town’s barrack a sergeant of the 30th Regiment … Continue reading →